Scleria violacea Pilger

Schneider, Layla Jamylle Costa, Simões, André Olmos, Dias, Ana Cristina Andrade De Aguiar & Gil, André Dos Santos Bragança, 2023, Typifications in Scleria subgenus Scleria section Hymenolytrum (Cyperaceae), Phytotaxa 606 (3), pp. 170-184 : 182

Scleria violacea Pilger in Engler (1901:145).

Lectotype (designated here):— BRAZIL. Mato Grosso: “auf Sumpfboden an einem Buriti-Bach am oberen Kulisehu”, 05 July 1899, fl. and fr., Pilger 715 ( B [10 0243694] photo!) ( Fig. 9 ).

Scleria violacea was described by Pilger (1901) as having leaf blades linear, ca. 60 × 1‒1.8 cm, margins scabrous, oval to oval-rounded, panicles dense, multi-branched and hirsute, involucral bracts foliate, superior ones setaceous, fruit pyramidal, pubescent, violaceous, and hypogynium trilobed with acute and short lobes. That description was based on a collection by Pilger 715 made in Mato Grosso State, Brazil. Robert Pilger’s main collection is currently housed in the B herbarium, although several specimens were partially destroyed during World War II, while others were deposited in other herbaria such as BM, NY, P and RB ( Stafleu & Cowan 1983). Information concerning this collection was retrieved from herbaria B, F and NY. A preserved material (B 10 0243694) was found in the B herbarium, with a standardized label of R. Pilger for collections in Brazil, with the collection number, year and the species described – but without locality information. A negative of a specimen (F 234410) from the B herbarium was found in F, and its label had additional information concerning the collection locality, which was the same as noted in the original description. There is a fragmented fruit in NY (00021643) from the original specimen at B, together with a small photograph to identify its origin. The curator of the B herbarium was contacted and stated that the original negative of the specimen held in F no longer existed. The specimen at the B herbarium (10 0243694) is herein designated as the lectotype of Scleria violacea because it has many structures and characteristics described in the original description and is the only remaining complete type specimen.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Lectotype of Scleria violacea Pilg. (Pilger 715, B [10 0243694]). Image: Herbarium B, Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin (BGBM, German).